Amid the excitement of the PWHL\u2019s sellout at Madison Square Garden on Saturday came a reminder: More PWHL franchises are coming soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ready to expand,\u201d said Stan Kasten, the president of the MLB\u2019s Los Angeles Dodgers and a PWHL advisory board member. \u201cThere is a line of cities eager to have us there, whether it\u2019s for a couple Takeover Tour games or for a full-time team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have news about that in the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s first wave of expansion added two new teams in Vancouver and Seattle this season. Before those teams even debuted on the ice, Amy Scheer, the league\u2019s executive vice president of business operations, revealed the league would add two to four new teams by 2026-27. If she were a betting woman, she said in November, the league would be adding four teams, getting to 12 franchises, up from the original six that launched in 2024.<\/p>\n
Is that still where she\u2019d put her money?<\/p>\n
\u201cSure,\u201d Scheer said in an interview with The Athletic. \u201cIt could be two, it could be three, could be four.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PWHL has held specifics about its expansion plans close to the vest and has not confirmed that any decisions have been made at this time. The timeline for any announcement remains fluid as the league works through the many options Kasten alluded to last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still having so many conversations and great conversations,\u201d Scheer said. \u201cThere\u2019s really no timeline. The answers will come when we feel comfortable making a final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the league works through those conversations, some front-runners have emerged, particularly due to the success of the PWHL\u2019s \u201cTakeover Tour,\u201d which ended its 16-stop run in Edmonton on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what The Athletic has been hearing.<\/p>\n
The leader in the clubhouse<\/p>\n
There has been a lot of buzz in Detroit that a PWHL team is coming. And a pretty bold statement from Denise Ilitch, whose family owns the Detroit Red Wings, the Detroit Tigers and other businesses in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we\u2019ll be getting a team in Detroit soon, which really excites me,\u201d she said on a recent episode of her podcast, \u201cThe Denise Ilitch Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans have proven over the last three years that there is an appetite for women\u2019s hockey in Detroit, drawing 53,586 fans over four games at Little Caesars Arena. The last game, on March 28, was the most well-attended (15,938) in Detroit and came on a day when the Red Wings played a few hours later, showcasing that double-headers could be a decent workaround to the arena\u2019s busy schedule.<\/p>\n
That game was also the first to air on national television in the United States, which was broadcast on ION. Ally Financial, which is based in Detroit, was the presenting sponsor of both the telecast and the game itself, contributing to the company\u2019s 50\/50 pledge to spend equally between men\u2019s and women\u2019s sports media.<\/p>\n
Economic opportunity is one of the many parts of the league\u2019s evaluation model for expansion cities, which makes Ally\u2019s move into women\u2019s hockey intriguing.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, for us, it was a little hard (to get involved) because it was six teams and three were in Canada,\u201d said Andrea Brimmer, Ally\u2019s chief marketing and public relations officer, in an interview last month. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any Canadian business to speak of, so that made it a little bit harder when it was like three markets only in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why the Takeover Tour made a lot of sense versus sponsoring a team,\u201d she added. \u201cI think as it grows and comes into more markets, it becomes more attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ability to land more partners in the United States could be another box checked for Detroit. Not to mention the robust grassroots hockey system for girls hockey in the area, with programs such as Little Caesars and Honey Baked already represented in the league by Boston Fleet captain Megan Keller, and top prospect Kirsten Simms.<\/p>\n
At this point, it would be shocking if Detroit weren\u2019t one of the league\u2019s newest teams by next season.<\/p>\n
The Chicago rumors<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, multiple reports started to spread on social media that the PWHL would land in Chicago, and play at the new Blackhawks Ice Center in the same 2,000-seat rink as the USHL\u2019s Chicago Steel.<\/p>\n
According to a Chicago Blackhawks team source, those reports \u2014 that the PWHL would be coming to the Blackhawks\u2019 facility \u2014 are not true. Kasten also inadvertently shut those rumours down last week when he revealed the ideal PWHL arena capacity is around 10,000.<\/p>\n
This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that Chicago isn\u2019t being considered for expansion. The market checks a lot of boxes as a massive U.S. television market with a strong girls youth hockey pipeline. The question is: Where would a women\u2019s pro hockey team play?<\/p>\n
The United Center would be too great a challenge with the Blackhawks (NHL), Chicago Bulls (NBA) and concerts filling up the venue\u2019s schedule. Allstate Arena, in nearby Rosemont, Ill., would be big enough and could easily be shared with the AHL\u2019s Chicago Wolves.<\/p>\n
Two games at Allstate drew modest crowds of 7,238 (Dec. 21) and 10,006 (March 25) this season, which makes you wonder if Chicago \u2014 a very crowded pro sports city with big four major league sports franchises as well as WNBA, MLS and NWSL teams \u2014 can provide the kind of support the PWHL is looking for.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s stock up<\/p>\n
As the league expanded the Takeover Tour to include more non-NHL markets this season, Hamilton emerged as an intriguing candidate.<\/p>\n
The January game was well attended (16,012 fans) and was the first hockey game played at TD Coliseum since the venue\u2019s $300 million renovation. It was also the first PWHL \u201cTakeover Tour\u201d game to feature the neutral-site tour\u2019s logo at center ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very impressive, the renovations they\u2019ve done in this building,\u201d said Toronto Sceptres defender Renata Fast, who grew up in Burlington. \u201cIt\u2019s like a brand new building.\u201d<\/p>\n
TD Coliseum is now owned and operated by Oak View Group, which also developed Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, where the PWHL\u2019s Torrent play, among other major sports and entertainment venues. In February, the PWHL announced a multi-year agreement with Oak View Group, making the firm an exclusive sales partner to help grow the league\u2019s sales reach. That relationship \u2014 albeit with the global partnerships division of Oak View Group \u2014 could prove to be important as the league looks at potential cities and the specific venues their teams could play in.<\/p>\n